Microsoft readies MobileMe competitor

After inadvertently leaking details of an upcoming MobileMe competitor, Microsoft went ahead and confirmed that it will unveil the service at the upcoming Mobile World Congress wireless show starting next week. Previously rumored to be called Skybox, the upcoming product is now branded “My Phone” and will enable mobile phone users running Windows Mobile to back up and sync information on their handheld such as contacts, calendar appointments, text messages, photos and videos to a password-protected site.

It will debut as an invite-only beta and users will get 200 MB of free storage. Microsoft is already beta-testing a similar service called Live Mesh, so we'll have to wait and see what extra features the full service rollout brings before passing final judgment, but one notable difference between the two is that My Phone appears limited to people using phones with Windows Mobile 6 or above. More information is available here.